Erardi: Reds-Cubs finale like a ride on the Banshee

Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman (54) is restrained by teammates during a bench clearing scuffle with the Chicago Cubs in the tenth inning at Great American Ball Park. The Cubs won 6-4 .(Photo: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports)

The Big 162 is supposed to spread itself languidly over six months, but the Business Day Special the Reds and Cubs experienced Thursday was anything but business as usual.

It was more like a ride on the Banshee.

It was a day of twists and turns (one not-so-good by the Reds), and there were players hit-by-pitches, buzzed-by-pitches and a Cubs runner trying in vain to dodge a Reds catcher.

In the middle of it all, there was Cubs' 3-hole hitter Anthony Rizzo, who really seems like a decent guy judging by his comments following the game, but during he was one unhappy camper.

He obviously wasn't pleased being hit by a pitch from Reds starter Homer Bailey in the first inning, and was even less happy when Reds closer Aroldis Chapman had a couple of pitches get away from him, right over the head of Cubs' batter Nate Schierholtz in the ninth inning.

In between, the Reds' Zack Cozart was hit by pitch, as was the Cubs' John Baker. The Reds' Todd Frazier was buzzed a couple of times.

Rizzo appeared to get incensed when Chapman looked in the Cubs dugout in the ninth, Chapman apparently finding it nonsensical that somebody would think he was trying to hit somebody in a 4-4 game, but when Chapman appeared to later dismissively wave his glove at the Cubs' dugout, it was too much for Rizzo to take.

Maybe if somebody from the Reds dugout hadn't yelled something at first baseman Rizzo when he went to take his position in the bottom of the inning he would have kept his cool, but instead he lost it, throwing his glove and cap to the ground and heading for the Reds dugout. Chapman and Alfredo Simon appeared eager to settle the score, but were restrained while both benches and bullpens emptied. No punches were thrown.

"I was just trying to be a good teammate," Rizzo said. "I have the utmost respect for this city and the Reds, but we as a team have to stick up for each other."

The Cubs patience had worn thin to begin with, having lost four straight to the Reds in this series and falling behind 4-1 before Thursday before coming back to win 6-4.

In the Reds clubhouse afterward, Chapman gave his side of the story through translator Tomas Vera.

"There were two pitches that ran away from me," he said. ''The entire (Cubs) bench started to yell at me and tell me things from there, but I just kept pitching and doing what I had to do. And after that, when we went back to the bench, he (Rizzo) started to yell some things and then you saw what happened after that."

Rizzo said at the end of his clubhouse interview that he didn't think Chapman was intentionally trying to hit Schierholtz.

"He's the best closer in the game," Rizzo said. "He's not out there trying to hit anyone or do anything crazy. He knows how to play the game, and he's really good."

"No hitter goes into the box expecting to get buzzed at a hundred miles an hour," said Cubs manager Rick Renteria, who also didn't feel Chapman was throwing at Schierholtz. "It's a dangerous proposition. (Chapman) of all people should know, after having taken a ball off the face with a line drive."

On top of everything else, by day's end, Rizzo had gone from the ridiculous to the sublime, it being announced that he had been elected to the National League All-Star team in one of those final-week write-campaigns that put Joey Votto in the All-Star Game a few years ago.

All in a day's work, hey Rizzo?

He agreed that he could have done without quite so much emotion. Somebody compared it to a roller coaster ride.

"Yeah, it was," Rizzo said. "(The crazy thing is) that's one of the teams (the Reds) I like the most. I like every guy in that clubhouse. Tempers flared. Hopefully, it's been resolved. It'll be nice to be their teammates next week (in the All-Star Game) and have some jokes about it."

The Reds threw out Luis Valbuena at the plate in the top of the 12th after the damage was done. Valbuena, having hit a two-run triple, was trying to stretch it into an inside-the-park home run. Valbuena went wide trying to avoid Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco who hung with it, tagging out Valbuena when he snaked back and tried to brush the plate with his hand.

The Cubs appealed it but lost.

"I thought the rule said the catcher doesn't have the right to block the lane without the ball," Cubs' manager Rick Renteria said. "If the ball takes him (the catcher) into the lane he has every right to move with the ball to make the play. But even having ball… _he's supposed to still allow the runner a path to the (plate). He didn't look like he had the ball, nor was there a lane…. Those are some of the things that I'm sure will be cleared up over time, the more plays that happen that deal with the rule."